Hardball (2001)

Hardball: Directed by Brian Robbins. With Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane, John Hawkes, Bryan Hearne. An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling, and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.

“With the same book author (Moriarty) and producer (David E Kelly) as Big Little Lies, it definitely has a similar feel. Iu0026#39;ve seen most of what I think of as shows capitalizing on the Big Little Lies lightening-in-a-bottle success (The Undoing, Big Sky, Little Fires Everywhere, even Sharp Objects to some extent) and most of them sadly donu0026#39;t quite hit the mark. This is the best offering of the bunch so far, while having a unique enough story to be engaging. I enjoyed the first episodes very much, and am glad they dropped more than one!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePositives so far:n*Location and intrigue (I am avoiding book spoilers; I donu0026#39;t know where the story is going)n*Good Pacingn*Excellent Music and Cinematographyn*Every character is very interesting and I want to know more. On the surface they seem like caricatures of the kind of people to attend an expensive retreat but Iu0026#39;m not mad about it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e*Casting is nearly perfectu003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMy favorite actors/characters so far: The Good Placeu0026#39;s Manny Jacinta, Bobby Cavale, Mellissa McCarthy, Tiffany Boone (young Mia from Little Fires Everywhere), and Samara Weaving.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNegatives so far: (not much!)n*Sadly, Nicole Kidman is the biggest negative here! I wish first and foremost they would have skipped the Russian part of her character as her fake accent is terribly inconsistent and distracting. Plus since it is a similar show to Big Little Lies, I only see Celeste all the time. Loved her as season one Celeste (though overall season two was a big letdown). She annoyed me in The Undoing, so maybe Iu0026#39;m just tired from the over-saturation of Nicole Kidman in these kinds of stories?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e*The only other negative at this time is some of the characters are a bit flat right now; but I do think that will change as the show progresses and they each get their moment. Need more from Luke Evans, Michael Shannon and his teen daughter, Samara Weavingu0026#39;s husband guy, and Regina King before making final verdicts on them.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, a great start! Probably an 8-9 rating at this point; I will update my rating after the show concludes. I recommend giving it a shot!”